ach tissue has a specific composition of its extracellular matrix (ECM), which is associated with distinctive physical and mechanical properties. These mechanical properties are important for tissue structure, but also control cell function in physiology and disease 1,2. Cells sense the mechanical properties of the ECM through integrin receptors, and measure them by adjusting the contractility of their F-actin cytoskeleton: contractility is maximal when cells are free to spread on stiff ECM substrata, while it is progressively decreased on a soft ECM or in conditions of limited spreading 1. This is sufficient to control the switch between proliferation, differentiation and death in very diverse cell types, by regulating intracellular signalling pathways such as YAP (Yes-associated protein)/TAZ (transcriptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif, also known as WWTR1) 3,4 and SRF (serum response factor) 5,6. In support of this model, inhibition of key players that maintain F-actin contractility including the small GTPase RHO, ROCK (RHO kinase), MLCK (myosin light chain kinase) and non-muscle myosin (NMII) induce similar responses to a soft ECM 1. Yet, which other general aspects of cell biology are regulated by mechanical cues, and through which mechanism(s), remain largely unexplored. This is especially true in the case of metabolism, a fundamental engine that is constantly remodelled to match the energetic and biosynthetic requirements of the cell, whose connections to mechanical cues are only starting to emerge 7,8. Results Actomyosin regulates lipid metabolism. To test in an unbiased manner the possibility that actomyosin contractility regulates metabolism we used global metabolomics to compare cells in conditions of high contractility (plated on plastics) with cells in conditions of low contractility, by inhibiting ROCK and MLCK. Analysis of steady-state levels of multiple metabolites indicated clear differences between controls and treated cells (Fig. 1a and Supplementary